by Lauren Esker
Through the barrage of new sensory input, he became slowly aware of Meri's awe and astonishment coming to him through the link.
Which was the point at which he remembered that she had never seen him shift before.
***
He really was a dragon.
His vast flank rose and fell against her as he breathed, as unexpectedly warm as his skin had been, pebbled with tiny scales and the same iridescent bronze color as his human skin. Although her first thought was that he looked like a storybook dragon, there was also something indefinably alien about him. He bristled with spikes, and when he turned his head, long jaws half parted, a row of serrated fangs glistened. His tail twitched like a cat's, dragging in the edge of the water. His dark blue hair, which she had thought of as a mane in his human form, really was a mane now, bristling all the way along his neck to the top of his shoulders.
Meri caught herself wondering if he could breathe fire.
The huge dinosaur-like things—velocirexes?—were clearly startled, but not enough to run away. They had stopped their approach when Lyr transformed; now they began to creep forward again, cautiously, with their heads lowered and tails stretched out behind to counterbalance.
Enormous wings unfurled from Lyr's back. They were translucent enough to let the sunlight through, surprisingly fragile-looking with their complex arrangement of delicate bones and a row of tiny spines on the leading edge.
*I don't know if I can fly and carry your weight,* Lyr told her, answering the question she hadn't asked aloud. *My wings are meant for flying in vacuum, not atmosphere. Anyway, there's not enough room here between the trees to take off. Stay with me.*
He lowered his half-furled wings like shields, blocking her from the dinosaurs. She could still see dimly through the translucent membranes, but not enough to make out exactly what was happening on the other side. The tiny hairs rose on her arms, like a static electric charge, as the green glimmer of Lyr's shield covered them.
A moment later, beneath the leading edge of Lyr's wing, she glimpsed one of the dinosaurs charge. Meri drew back against his side with an involuntary cry. Its claws raked down Lyr's shield and slid off—but Lyr jerked back.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
*Yes, but I don't have enough power to shield against too many attacks like that. Blunt-force blows will drain my shields quickly, and the cuffs haven't had a chance to recharge fully since yesterday.*
"So you're saying you can't shield us for very long."
*Unfortunately, no.*
Keeping his wings around her, he started forward, toward the path leading back to the ship. Meri hung back. "Wait, my phone—"
*You can get it later.*
He was right. Better that than her life. "Should I get on your back?" she asked. The idea seemed ludicrous, but he was as tall as a horse; she could ride him. In theory. "Or am I too heavy?"
*You aren't too heavy, but if I have to fight, you'd be in less danger if you stay on the ground than if you go into battle with me.*
Meri wasn't too sure about that. At least she had her blouse on, but she hadn't had a chance to get her shoes, and being barefoot made her feel terribly vulnerable. The path was a minefield of sharp sticks, though she realized as soon as she stepped on one that the shield blunted their sharp edges and kept them from hurting her.
Another dinosaur lunged at them, slamming into them from the side with snapping teeth. The impact made Lyr stagger sideways, curling a protective wing to keep Meri from falling over. She was starting to realize that even with the shield in place, there were still plenty of ways the dinosaurs could hurt them. They could make Lyr fall on her, for example. Or just pile onto him and batter him. It was clear that the shield wasn't able to absorb all the force of a body-check attack.
At any other time, she'd be fascinated. This was better than the Dinosaur Pavilion at the state fair. But alien dinosaurs were a lot less fun when they were trying to kill you.
*New plan,* Lyr said suddenly. His great clawed forepaws closed around her, and without warning she was whisked off the ground.
"Lyr!" she yelped as he reared onto his back legs. She had a dizzying glimpse of dinosaurs and trees and a flash of the sun on the silver surface of the crashed ship some ways off among the trees. She thought for an instant that he was going to fly after all, but then scratchy branches poked at her bare skin and she was deposited in the upper branches of one of the biggest of the smallish trees around the pool.
"Lyr!" she yelled, this time in a mix of fear and fury as he twisted away from her and fell back to all fours.
She hadn't been much of a tree climber even as a kid, and certainly hadn't done it since, let alone with dinosaurs after her. He had deposited her about twenty feet off the ground, as high up as he could reach. It felt simultaneously way too high and (given the size of the dinosaurs) not nearly high enough. She didn't think any of them could reach her even if they stood on their hind legs, but what if they could climb?
Lyr backed away from the tree and spun around with a snarl to face the dinosaurs.
As if they had been waiting for a signal, or simply waiting until he was distracted, the whole pack charged.
Meri wrapped an arm around the tree trunk and stuffed her fist in her mouth to keep from screaming his name. The last thing he needed right now was a distraction.
She'd seen a couple of dog fights growing up, and this made her think of a much larger-scale version of those. It was a snarling, spinning mess, except in this case the combatants were big enough to knock over small trees. She glimpsed occasional flickers of green light, but how much of this could Lyr's shields take? She couldn't even tell who was winning. The edge of the pool was churned to mud, the dam half destroyed. Water fountained up from the dinosaurs' clawed feet as they stumbled into it when Lyr's blows drove them back. Her phone, her shoes, Lyr's boots—she knew it was stupid to worry about that kind of thing at a time like this, but she wished she'd at least managed to grab her shoes; she didn't have any others.
One of the velocirexes slammed into the trunk of her tree, making the entire tree shudder. She let out an involuntary yelp, and it looked up, its hairless snout wrinkling back from jagged teeth. Then it set its claws into the bark of the tree and began to climb.
"Lyr!" Meri screamed. "No! Go away!" She hurled handfuls of twigs and leaves into its face, which did nothing to deter it from its focus on her. It seemed impossible to her that something so huge could climb so well. It was bigger than a bear, its claws raking curls of bark from the tree. The trunk swayed under its weight. It was close enough that she could see threads of saliva trailing from the corners of its jaws. Its eyes looked like catseye marbles, vivid green and gold, and just as cold and hard. She could even smell it, a harsh animal musk.
"I don't want to die half-naked in a tree!" she shrieked, and finally remembered to use the link. Lyr was too occupied in his fight to hear her, but he should be able to pick up her distress. *Lyr! Help!*
The result this time was instant. Lyr whipped around from the scrimmage with the other dinosaurs, raised both heavily clawed forepaws, and a bolt of green light stabbed out from his paired wrists and speared the dinosaur through the skull. It was already dead as it fell. It hit the ground with a shuddering impact and lay twitching, with a wisp of smoke curling up.
She was about to ask why he hadn't done that sooner when the green glimmer of the shield died, and she realized he'd drained his cuffs saving her.
He was now entirely vulnerable to the dinosaurs' claws.
At the moment, none of them were attacking; they seemed to have learned caution from their packmate's death, and had withdrawn to snarl at him from a distance. Meri wondered why more of them weren't injured—one had a dangling, broken leg, but otherwise they didn't seem to be hurt any worse than Lyr—until she remembered how the stick under her foot had felt blunt instead of sharp. The shield worked both ways, dulling the dinosaurs' claws so they slid off, but also preventing Lyr from hurting them with anyt
hing other than blunt force trauma.
Lyr began to back toward her tree. The dinosaurs seemed to take this as retreat, because they plunged after him.
This time, without the shield in the way, the scrimmage went somewhat differently. The first dino to collide with Lyr was sent into panicked retreat, shrieking, after Lyr's claws raked across its face and left it bloody and blinded. Its smaller, faster packmate managed to viciously savage Lyr's shoulder; Meri cried out in sympathy. It didn't seem to slow him down. There was a brief flurry of brutal fighting, a good deal bloodier this time—she couldn't follow it with her eyes; it was nothing but flying claws and screams of pain and rage—and then the remaining dinos fled into the woods, blood streaming down their pebbly hides.
Lyr stood over the dead dinosaur, his bloody sides heaving, staring into the woods. The spikes on his head were flat, like a dog's lowered ears, but slowly they raised as the dinos didn't come back.
"Lyr?" Meri called down hesitantly. "Could I get, uh ... a hand here?"
*Right. Sorry.*
Lyr reared up on his back legs and closed his forepaws carefully around her. Meri had to pry her aching hands from the tree; its bark had left creases in her skin. Lyr lifted her off the branch and settled gently to the ground. Now that she was no longer completely panicked, she was able to appreciate the strangeness of being cradled in a dragon's hands. The skin of his palms was warm and leathery and a little bit rough, like a dog's pads.
Meri wobbled when her feet touched the ground and caught herself by clutching at Lyr's massive claws. They were sticky, and she tried not to think about what they were sticky with.
*Are you all right?*
"I'm fine." She looked in worry at the torn flesh on his shoulder. His pale, silvery blood was mixed with the red blood of the velocirexes. "Are you?"
*I've had worse.* She sensed pain but also amusement through the link, as he looked down at her from luminous silver eyes that were both like and unlike his eyes in human form. *I'm sorry. I didn't mean to spring this on you quite so abruptly.*
"Well, I wanted to see it." She reached out a hesitant hand. "May I touch you?"
*By all means.*
She brushed her hand along the warm, soft skin of the tip of his snout. The scales were so fine and close together here that it was indistinguishable from normal skin. As she ran her hand from his snout-tip along his jaw, she felt the scales becoming harder and larger until they overlapped like armor on his throat. When he moved, his scales rippling like liquid metal.
"You're amazing," she whispered.
Amusement fluttered gently against her mind. *I'm going to shift back now. Are you prepared?*
"Yes." She stared at him, wide-eyed, wanting to fix every second in her mind. There wasn't much to see, and yet it was the most amazing thing she'd ever seen. His body rippled and flowed smoothly, collapsing down to his familiar human shape.
"How can you change size like that? Where does the extra go?"
"Believe me, my people have spent a lot of time arguing about it." He grimaced and touched his shoulder.
At that, her nurse side took over. "We need to apply pressure to that, and clean the wound. Animal bites are filthy."
"It should stop bleeding soon. My nanites will seal the cut, and my people heal fast anyway ..." He hesitated, and an odd look crossed his face.
"Lyr?"
"Dizzy," Lyr murmured as he slumped against her. Meri, shocked, tried to catch him, but he was heavier and his weight bore both of them down to the ground.
"Lyr? What's going on?"
"It burns," he muttered, pressing his hand against his bleeding shoulder. "Curse it. They're poisonous."
"Lyr!"
True panic washed over her. Even the dinosaurs hadn't scared her like this, because Lyr had been there, tall and strong and ready to deal with them. Now Lyr trembled in her arms, barely able to sit up. His fingers, clutched over the wound on his shoulder, were covered with silvery blood, and it traced pinkish-silver streaks down his skin, visibly trickling even as she watched. He was bleeding a lot. Some kinds of venomous snakes had anti-coagulants in their venom, preventing their victims' blood from clotting. This might be similar.
First aid for snakebite, she thought. Keep the victim calm and still: easier said than done, when he was covered with blood in a wilderness full of dangerous predators. Give antivenom: well, that wasn't going to happen. No Earth hospital had ever seen this particular poison before, even if there was a hospital closer than a dozen light-years away.
"Stay with me," she told him, forcing her voice to remain steady. Lyr's eyelids fluttered; his eyes were starting to roll back in his head. "Lyr, we have to get you back to the ship." She hated to move him in this condition, but there was no other choice. She couldn't even apply a tourniquet to slow the spread of the venom because the wound was on his shoulder, not far enough down a limb to be isolated—and dangerously close to his heart.
"Come on. You have to stand up."
She got an arm under his shoulders and struggled to help him to his feet. She'd never appreciated just how much bigger he was, or how heavy. He fought to get his legs under him, but they were spastic and uncoordinated. His jaw was locked tight, and though he was trying to keep it from her through the link, she could tell how much pain he was in.
The speed with which the venom was taking effect terrified her. Most snake and spider bites on Earth took much longer; it was one reason why the fatality rate from even a very poisonous snake was usually low, because there was time to apply first aid and get the victim to a hospital. This was more like a jellyfish sting. If it kept advancing at this pace, all she was going to be able to do was watch him die.
No! I won't think like that. I can help him back at the ship. There must be something that will help.
But that depended on getting him to the ship. His legs wobbled at every step, swaying and threatening to take them both to the ground. Only his iron self-control was keeping him on his feet.
And that control was faltering as his grip on consciousness slipped. To her horror, she could feel him slipping away from her through the link. He was fading, growing more distant, spiraling down into a place she couldn't follow.
"Lyr! Fight it!" she told him desperately.
His knees buckled. She fought to hold him up, but ended up being dragged to her knees by his weight.
*You have to go.* It came to her faintly through the link, although his eyes were closed, only a slit of the whites showing. *Not safe here. They didn't go far ...*
"I'm not leaving you!"
*Go ...* And the tenuous thread snapped; she couldn't feel him in her head anymore.
"Lyr!" She took his face in her hands and kissed his slack lips. She wasn't sure why she thought it would help. There was no response. He was still breathing, she found as she took his vitals with quick, practiced motions. His pulse was faint and incredibly fast, 200 beats per minute at least.
The venom? His body trying to handle the venom?
"Come on, Lyr, hang in there," she muttered. She struggled to her feet and gripped him under the arms. She knew she couldn't carry him, so dragging it was going to have to be. This wouldn't be fun, but splinters would heal. Getting torn apart by dinosaurs wouldn't.
The dinosaurs ...
A low growl made her look up.
"Oh no," she whispered.
Covered with blood, its catseye-marble eyes glinting, a dino stood on the path between her and the ship. Its head was down, its murderous intent clear. Meri didn't need to be able to read its mind to know what it was thinking. As far as it was concerned, the huge winged monster that had attacked it earlier was gone, leaving only crippled and bloody prey.
"Go away!" Meri shouted.
She pulled at the cuff on Lyr's wrist, but it wasn't like she could do anything with it anyway. It was drained of power and wouldn't work for her even if it was at full strength.
She had no weapons. No gun. Nothing.
Not that it looked like any
thing short of a rocket launcher would work on this thing.
Muscles bunched under the dino's pebbled hide. It took a step forward, its gory claws crackling on the dead sticks and leaves of the path.
This might even be the one who'd bitten Lyr. Strings of bloody drool trailed from its jaws.
And Meri was suddenly, viciously furious. She seized a stick and leaped to her feet. The dino jerked back, startled.
"Go away!" she screamed, swinging the stick at it.
For an instant she thought it almost might work, from the element of surprise if nothing else. But then the dino seemed to process enough of the situation to understand that one small human with a stick posed no threat to it. A growl burbled up from its throat, and it tensed to spring.
Meri stood between Lyr and the dino, and she thought clearly, I'm going to die.
Then a blast of green light flickered across its hindquarters. The creature looked baffled, and turned to look over its shoulder.
There was a stranger on the path between them and the ship. A stranger—no—
Tiger-striped fur, ragged blue uniform pants ... it was Tamir.
15
___
“Y
OU HAVE TO hit it harder!" Meri shouted, as the dino growled, swinging its head as if trying to decide which of them to attack first. "Lyr's attacks just bounced off."
The creature finally seemed to make up its mind. It leaped toward Meri and Lyr, only to jerk in mid-leap, all its limbs flailing. It crashed to the path in an enormous heap, with its tongue lolling out of its mouth.
"Emperor's Firstborn," Tamir said. It sounded like a curse. "That took nearly all the power I had. What are these things made out of?"
Meri dropped her stick, got her hands under Lyr's armpits, and dragged him around the crumpled bulk of the dino. "Is it dead?" she panted.
"Not sure. Let's hope so." Tamir's voice was ragged, torn out through clenched teeth. He was leaning on a stick like a crutch, and she could see he was in bad shape, his fur dull and matted, eyes crusted and lips pale. Still, he reached for one of Lyr's arms, Meri got the other, and between the two of them they got Lyr up, supporting his deadweight between them.
